Race car narrowly misses spectators after terrifying flip

This is the terrifying moment a race driver's life flashed before his eyes as his car flipped six times and narrowly missed a group of spectators during a vintage car Grand Prix event.

Driving a 1961 Lotus Climax-18, professional driver Stephen Bond was catapulted in the air after being shunted from behind by another competiter.

The impact sent the Lotus cartwheeling six times over 15 metres, with the vehicle clearing a safety fence and coming to rest in a spectators' tunnel, narrowly missing a group of race fans.

One of the wheels was also torn off and flew perilously close towards another spectator.

Miraculously, Bond was able to walk away with just a broken collarbone following the stunning crash during a Goodwood Members Meeting in West Sussex, England.

Photographer Simon Hildrew, who captured the moment the car flipped, said it was remarkable no one was killed or seriously injured.

"It happened very quickly and Stephen ended up rolling about six times in the air," he told UK newspaper, The Mirror.

"It was incredibly lucky that the pedestrian tunnel that goes underneath the track was empty.

"That is where Stephen landed so if it was packed out with people it would have been a disaster."

Bond was competing in a event for Grand Prix cars raced from 1954 to 1961 in a $94,000 Lotus, similar to the one driven to victory by British Formula One great Sir Sterling Moss in the 1961 Monaco and German Grand Prixes.

The crash was compared to F1 driver Fernando Alonso's spectacular accident during the Australian Grand Prix that obliterated the Spaniard's McLaren.